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antamaso

ind.

1. even so much as; even with; even down to; with as little as
2. enough for; good enough for

Built from

• anta — root · end, limit
  The boundary or extreme point; the concrete sense of margin or terminus underlies the adverbial sense of 'down to' the smallest degree.
• mas — stem · measure
  From √mā 'to measure', related to Latin mēnsum, English measure, Greek metron. The instrumental suffix -o turns the notion of measure into a means: 'by measure'.
• o — ending · instrumental
  Instrumental singular marking, here converted into an adverbial particle expressing the standard or measure by which something is reckoned.

Analysis. anta-maso: anta 'end, limit' + maso 'by measure, measure-wise' (instrumental of mā); literally 'by the limit' or 'at the very end', hence 'even down to' and 'even a little'. The form expresses minimal quantity or the barest threshold.

Etymology. anta- from √anta 'end, boundary' (Sanskrit anta-, cognate with English end, German Ende); maso is the instrumental singular of mā 'measure' (Sanskrit mā, from PIE *meh₂- 'to measure', cognate with English measure, Latin mēnsum, Greek metron). The compound fuses spatial 'at the limit' with instrumental 'by measure' to express 'down to the smallest measure'.

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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